Garu
by famousamos
Summary: Garu is a young farmboy, but his life changes when he finds a multicolored rock in the forest.
1. Tides of Change

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of Christopher Paolini's characters, only mine.**

"Where is it?!!"

"I sent it to where you will not find it. It is yours no longer. I have lived with you for long enough and seen what your dispassionate heart will do. You do not need someone else to be your vassal and do your evil deeds. You will not get it from me."

"You will live to regret your words!"

The chase had begun weeks before. There was no knowledge of what happened. Many have speculated where it came from and how it was created, but no-one truly knows. Someone found out about it and stole it. For weeks, Galbatorix searched for it and the traitor. For weeks he looked through the minds of all of his people in the castle that would have any possibility to have known about it. He searched and searched, and finally found the traitor. It was the one person that he didn't think would ever betray him.

She was one of the only people that would listen to him when he was in the Spine. She found him when he was in the worst of states. He had passed out in a clearing and was being stalked by wolves when she found him. She chased the wolves off and helped to heal him until he was strong enough to continue on his own. When he finally gained the power of the riders again, he returned and took her with him. She had been his loyal servant and lover for many years since. The thing that had changed now was that she had stolen something from him. That one thing was the only thing that truly mattered to him in her mind.

The day that she stole the egg, he was gone. She didn't know where to and really didn't care. All she cared about was getting it back and getting it away from him. There were things about her that he didn't know and didn't need to know until she wanted to reveal it. She wanted to find a way to get the egg away from him before that ever happened though. She was going to send it to the one place that she thought that he would never look. Carvahall.

She went to the chamber that the egg was located in the middle of the night. There were no guards posted at this location because there was no need. She took the egg and walked with it back to her chambers. She began to cast the spell as soon as she got into the room and had the door shut. Moments later, the spell was finished, there was a bright flash, and the egg was gone. She collapsed and didn't wake again until two days later.

At the same time that she was waking up, so was a young man from Carvahall. Little did either of them know that he was to be the one that would make one of the most important discoveries of their day. He began on his trip in the early morning hours, intent on making it to the river before noon. It would be a long walk, but he had made it before and knew that it was one of the best places for him to fish. On the long walk there, he would finally find his fate, though he would not know it until it finally changed his life.

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	2. Of stones and traders

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of Christopher Paolini's characters, only mine.**

Man, I love the fall in Carvahall. The weather is starting to cool down, the deer are starting to move again, and the creatures of the woods and the sky are all moving about. There is also the chance to see many of the creatures that you would normally never see in Carvahall. These include geese that always winter further north somewhere, several types of ducks that fly through, and several other species of animals that you wouldn't normally see around Carvahall. I also love to see the changes in the colors of the trees and the way that the plants begin to change colors. The flowers in the area are also beautiful.

I also love to go fishing in some of the rugged parts of the valley and some of the Spine. There is some of the best fishing since some of the fish are spawning and most people don't even know that most of these areas even exist. It's just a bummer that some of the equipment that I wish I had was too expensive for me to get. I don't live in the wealthiest of homes. I live outside of Carvahall in some of the most rugged pieces of farmland in the area. We fight every year to get the crops to grow and to have enough crops to live well for the winter. We always end up with enough to survive somehow, though not the most comfortably.

Something changed a few weeks though. We are waiting for the traders to come so we can see what this thing that I found will get us. Something is wrong with this thing though. It almost feels like there is something in it studying me.

A couple of weeks ago, I was going to one of my favorite spots to fish when something caught my eye. There was this area that looked as though there was an explosion. The ground was torn up, the trees were burnt on the one side, and the leaves in the area were all gone. The only thing left on the ground was a large stone like thing that was in the middle. The only thing that made it catch my eye was the color. It was coal black with blood red mist like veins that spread across it, as a fog would go down the valleys of the Spine. Looking to see if there was any danger in the area, I slowly crept towards the stone.

The stone was unlike anything that I had ever seen. It seemed to be polished smooth with the care that a jeweler would a diamond. The colors were some of the most beautiful that I had ever seen. It was as if they were alive and beckoning me in to their charm. The patterns that the colors made were incredibly complex, yet were engaging enough to cause you to try to follow them from beginning to end. I wanted to run away with the stone and never come back but I knew that it probably would help my family better than me leaving would. I took the stone, looking around to see if anyone else had seen the stone or me, and left for home.

Walking up the road, I saw Brom. He was walking down the road in the opposite direction of what I was.

"Did you catch anything Garu?"

"No."

"You seem awfully excited for a fisherman who is headed for home with nothing but the loss of your bait to brag about."

"I am excited. I found a stone along the way to the river the likes of which I have never seen before. Look!"

With that, I pulled the stone out of my pack. I looked up, expecting to see a look of amazement or wonder in Brom's eyes, but only saw a look of pure terror.

"Where did you find this?"

"I told you, along the path to the river."

"Does anyone know about this stone but you?"

"No. Why?"

"Good. Keep the stone hidden. Tell no one about it. Do not even tell your father about this. I will be coming to speak to you of this within the next couple of days. Tell no one." With that, he turned to leave.

"Wait! You haven't told me why I need to fear anyone knowing about this."

"I will tell you when I speak to you in the next few days. Do _not_ tell anyone of the stone." With that, he was gone.

That evening, I returned to the house. I was still perturbed with Brom's insistence that I keep the stone secret. Especially from dad.

"Hey dad."

………….nothing.

"Hey Dad.

………..still nothing.

_This time I'll get him. _I took in the biggest breath that I could and bellowed with all the voice I had…."HEY DAD!"

With that, dad appeared at the edge of the field. He came to the house at his normal, slow pace.

"What in the blue devil are you yelling for? Half of Carvahall must have heard you."

"I got your attention didn't I?"

"What did you lose this time?"

"It's not something that I lost, but something that I found. Look!"

Dad had the look on his face that I was expecting from Brom when I pulled out the stone.

"Where did you find this stone?"

For about a half an hour I explained to him everything that happened to me except, for some reason, my encounter with Brom.

"You have had a long day then. Why don't we have dinner and see what we should do with this stone."

"What do you think that mom will say?"

"I think that she will be just as stunned as I was."

At dinner, I decided to try to bring up the stone in the only way that I thought that it should be brought up, by asking about money.

"Hey mom. Do we have any extra money?"

"No honey, you know that. That reminds me Agrus. Do you know what Horst and Elain bought? They bought another trailer! That makes the third trailer that they have bought in the past couple of months. Where do they get all of their money when they live in this valley like we do?"

"Please Serra. You know where their money comes from. You know that many people come from all over to get Horst to make them something. He is one of the best smiths in the area. Enough of this though. Garu has found something that may make even Horst and Elain seem poor compared to us. Garu."

With that, I pulled the stone out from my bag, which had been sitting under the table. When I set the stone on the table, mom seemed to be so stunned at the beauty that she was about to cry. She looked at me, looked at the stone, looked at dad, and then promptly fainted. An hour later, she awoke and told us there wasn't anyone in town that could possibly afford the stone.

"Exactly. If we wait for the traders to come, we could sell them the stone and become the richest people in Carvahall."

With that, we decided to wait for the traders. Even though it would be a series of months before the traders got to Carvahall, there was plenty to do in the meantime. Mom and dad wanted to put the stone on the mantle in the guest room but I asked if I could keep it in my room until the traders arrived. They agreed since it was me that found the stone.

Two days later, Brom pulled me off into a side street on one of the rare days that I went into town.

"What did I tell you about telling anyone about the stone?"

"Why wouldn't I tell my parents about something as beautiful as that stone? That stone may help us to end the poverty that my family has been stuck in for my whole life."

"That stone is not a stone! That stone is an egg. That stone is one of the few dragon eggs left in the world. This is not one thing to babble on about, especially to the biggest gossiper in Carvahall. If word of this egg got out of this town, to anyone outside of this town, this could spread to the king. The king is not one to allow any dragons to get away from him, especially when that dragon will hatch to one of the few people that will become a Dragon Rider."

"A dragon egg? You have got to be joking. That stone is no egg. I don't know where you have been drinking and what you have been drinking but I don't want anything to do with it. Leave me alone."

With that, I turned and walked away.

The next few months were some of the busiest of the year. We were busy with the harvesting, with the shearing of the sheep that we raised, and with the preparations for the winter ahead. I lost all time alone by myself. That didn't bother me because I knew that it would make me lose track of time and make the traders seem to come that much faster, which it did. By the time that we had all of our work done, the traders were beginning to come into town.

The trader days were some of the most fun of the year. I could stock up on some of the things that I would need for the year, including fishing line, hooks, and other oddities used for fishing, and see some of the things that I thought that I would never be able to buy. This year though, I was determined that that would change. I carried the stone with me, occasionally asking anyone if there was anyone to buy it. Eventually a trader told me to go to this one peculiar tent in the middle of the trader's tents.

"That one is weird. He only buys items that no one else will and seems to know more about those items than anyone else."

"Thank you kindly, Sir. I hope that you have a good season selling this year and hope to see you again."

I went over to the tent that the man pointed out to me. As I was about to open the flap to go inside, I heard a voice behind me.

"What do you think that you are doing going into my tent?"

"I apologize if my actions seemed to you to be an intrusion, but I wished to ask you if you might be able to buy an item that I have for sale. No one else will buy it because they think that it is worth more than they have."

"In that case, please come in."

As soon as I pulled the stone out of my bag, the trader stopped me.

"That is something that no traders in this area could afford. I apologize. There may be a few people in some of the towns further along our path that could buy this item. I don't know what it is or how you got it, but I am sure that there is someone that would be willing to buy it."

With that, the trader asked to be excused. Leaving his tent, I went left to go towards home.

Upon arriving home, I told my parents what the trader said. They were downtrodden and tried to think of something that they could do to sell the stone.

That evening, while listening to my parents argue over whether they should try to find another trader that would buy the stone, I decided to go to sleep and put the stone back where I normally had it. The stone seemed to be no different from when I first found it, but it had taken on a different feel, as if it had come to life. I don't know why I had that feeling, but it seemed to make me think about what Brom had said.

Being late at night, I went to sleep. When I woke up, something was wrong. Even though it was late at night, late enough for my parents to be asleep, there was still noise coming from inside the house. I stopped, listened, and discerned, to my surprise, that the sound was coming from the area of the stone. The stone was moving!

Surprised and now scared, I jumped off the bed and grabbed the only thing that I had to protect me, a small dagger given to me the day I turned fourteen. As I slowly moved closer to the stone, I realized that there was a crack running along the top of the stone. Curious, I moved closer. The closer I got, the wider the crack seemed to get until, upon reaching the stone, the crack split the stone in half. Staring in amazement, I watched as the egg, as I now knew it to be, folded open along the crack. In its place, there seemed to be a spot that the moon's light could not brighten. As I watched, the blackness moved. Suddenly, a pair of eyes as red as the red of the egg opened and looked directly at me. Fear gripped me, yet I couldn't strike. I backed up and looked for my candle and flint while all the time keeping an eye on that pair of eyes. Finding the candle and flint, I lit the candle and looked to see what I had sitting where the egg had been.

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	3. A Rider and his Dragon

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of Christopher Paolini's characters, only mine.**

In the place of the egg stood a dragon that was pure midnight black other than blood red eyes, blood red spikes running along its spine, and blood red talons. It was slightly smaller than a house cat, though longer, with intelligence that seemed to emanate from the small creature. It had wings attached to its sides that looked almost bat-like with long finger-like projections holding the skin in place. The body of the dragon seemed to be improper for the size of the wings. Each wing was longer than the body. Even though the dragon was just now coming out of its egg, it still was incredibly muscled and obviously built for fighting.

The dragon finally took its eyes off of me and began wandering around the room. As it walked, I followed it. There were a few times that it would wobble and bump into something as it walked. When it did, it would growl and then continue walking. I started to chuckle every time that it would do this, a fact that the dragon soon figured out. After it had traveled around the room a few times, it decided that it was done on the ground and made what I thought was an amazing leap for its size from the floor to the bed. When it got to the pillow, it stopped, turned around, lay down, and focused those blood red eyes on me again.

I decided that this was its permission for me to come over to it. I decided to start slow and sat on the edge of the bed furthest from the dragon. When I did, it stood up and walked over to me. I thought about standing up when it stood up, but for some reason decided not to. It came over to me and laid down almost close enough to touch my leg. I sat there and studied it for a moment as it stared at me with those intelligent eyes. I put my right hand out in front of it for it to smell my hand. When it touched my hand with its nose, it sent a shock through my system that I will never forget.

It started out as an extreme shock, as if ice had replaced all the blood in my veins. Then there was a burning, as it seemed that the ice was replaced with fire. As the burning faded, there was a sudden feeling of someone trying to combine my thoughts with theirs. The feeling only got stronger until fear helped me to block it out of my mind. I was standing by this time. I looked at the dragon with fear but still curiosity. It still watched me with those blood red eyes. I looked at my hand as it started to itch. On it, an oval of white formed. It seemed as if a thin sheet of water lay over top of the white because it seemed to shine silvery. I knew that I had to keep this hidden until I had a chance to talk to Brom.

Thinking on this relaxed me and I soon felt the thoughts again. This time they were clearer. They now told of curiosity and hunger. I told the dragon to stay where it was and went to get it some food. All that I had were some small pieces of jerky and a little bit of sausage left from dinner earlier. _Man, am I glad that dad and mom are heavy sleepers. _I then figured out that I could communicate through this link when I got the feeling of agreement through this thought link.

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	4. A name and training

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of Christopher Paolini's characters, only mine**

When I was preparing to leave, Brom started talking again.

"I want you to come here every day. Come when you get your morning chores done. I have some training that I need you to do."

"Training?"

"You'll see."

I was still curious about what Brom had in mind so I tried to get him to tell me what he had in store for me. He still wouldn't tell me. I kept trying until he finally told me that it was training that all of the Dragon Riders had been through. I decided that that was enough for me and headed for home, taking Red-Eye with me.

When I got home, I found a place for Red-Eye among the woods around our home. He seemed content with the home I had found him. For the next few weeks, I would go to him when I had a chance. Being the winter, I feared for him, but my fears were unfounded. He seemed to be happy among the trees and in the cold. He was always very happy when I was around though. It seemed to me that he wanted to get to know me as well as he could.

The next day, I went to Brom's house. As soon as I got into the clearing, a stick was thrown at me. I threw my hands up to protect myself and flinched as it hit me in the arm. I looked at him and saw that he was also holding a stick. It was shaped like a makeshift sword. When I looked at the stick that Brom threw at me, I saw that it looked the same.

"Defend yourself."

He rushed me and swung the stick at me. It hit my arm as I threw them up again.

"Your arm won't work. Pick up your sword and use it."

"I have never fought with a sword before. I have never even held one before. What do you expect me to do?"

"Practice."

With that, he rushed me again. Again, he hit me in the arm as I threw it up to block his attack.

"Use the sword! Pick it up!"

As soon as I picked up the sword, Brom rushed me again. Again, I used my arm.

"I will use the same attack as I used before. This time use your _sword_ to block it."

Again, he attacked. This time I tried to raise the sword to block, but I still got hit in the arm.

"Again."

And again.

And again.

Until that day, I thought I knew what it was like to be in pain. With the beating that I took that day, I now know what pain is. We continued this beating until I finally blocked one of his attacks.

"You need to practice moving faster to intercept an attack. I know that this is the first time that you have wielded a sword, but, you should be faster than that."

"I'll try to speed up, but I don't know how to use a sword. As I told you before, this is the first time that I have even held a sword."

"Let me help you than."

With that, he began to teach me some of the ways to parry and some of the ways to dodge an attack. We spent half the day just going over some of the moves. After this long session of slow motion blocking, he again picked up his sword.

"Now we will see what you have learned. I will start out slow. I am going to attack you and I want to see what you would do to block or dodge the attacks."

With that, he attacked. Even though it was slower than normal, there were still a few times that he caught me in either the hand or the arm. After another few hours of this, he told me that he thought that I was starting to get the hang of it and to go home and practice it.

Every day after that, I went to Brom's house after my morning chores. I slowly began to improve on my speed and ability to block his attacks. After a while, he was attacking me at the speed that he originally attacked me. By this time, I was much faster. There were still a few times that he would get me, but they were few and far between. I decided on that day to try to attack him. I was surprised when I heard the swords smack together.

"You feel confident enough to try to attack me now. Good. Now I can begin to show you some of the techniques to attack someone."

Even though I wasn't getting beat on for the next few days, I could never hit Brom. He moved too fast and too smoothly for me to hit him. As I would try to attack him, he would tell me what I was doing wrong and comment on small things.

"That would have just cost you your head."

"That was wrong. Try it like this."

"Don't do that. You leave yourself open too much."

"That was good. Now try to do it when I'm not ready for it."

"That was horrible. _Never _do that when your opponent has a sword. It is a good way to die."

We continued on this way through the day. Finally, he said to stop and I put down my sword. By this time, I was exhausted.

"It's a good start. I'll see you tomorrow."

He dismissed me and I headed into town. There were a few things that I had to get. Dad had asked that I go to Sloan's and get some meat. He also needed a bit of metal work done and he asked me to tell Horst about it. That was when I heard all the gossip.

It seemed that there were a couple of strangers in town asking a lot of questions. Most of them seemed to be about stones, dragons, and eggs. There weren't many people that had told them anything, but they had suddenly disappeared. Right after they disappeared, Eragon and Garrow had appeared injured at Gertrude's house.

I knew that things had been going on in town, but I didn't know how bad they were until I saw Brom the next day. He had a gash running down the left side of his head that made anything that I had ever had look like a scratch. When I questioned Brom on what happened, he told me not to worry about it.

"How can I not worry about it? You are a friend and mentor. Friends worry about each other."

"I'm sorry. It is something that I do not want to get you involved in. This is for your own safety. Now, I have things that I need to do today. If it is not a problem for you, please go home."

"Go home? We haven't done anything yet. If there are things that you need help with, I can help."

"Go home."

With that, he turned his back on me and left the conversation.

Later that day, I was in town and ran into Brom. Surprisingly, he stopped me and pulled me aside. When I asked what was up, he suddenly got very serious.

"Gather what things you will need for a long trip and meet me at my house in two hours."

"Why?"

"Just do it!"

With that, he was gone.

I went to my house and gathered some of the things that I though that I would need for a trip. I didn't know what may happen or what we may run into on the road, or what we were doing. All that I did was gather some clothes and a few fishing items. I grabbed my favorite walking stick. It had saved me from a few wolves at one point in time. I then headed for Brom's house.

On the way to the house, I stopped at the tree that Red-Eye was at. By this time, he understood what I was saying and could respond to some of the questions. His answers were always _yes_ or _no_. He couldn't truthfully speak to me yet, but I could still almost tell what he was thinking. When I told him we were leaving, he seemed curious. I told him about all the events of the day. When I got to the part about Brom, he jumped off the branch he was on and glided down to me. I took his meaning by this as a _lets go_.

When I got to Brom's house, it looked like nobody was there. I knew that Brom could hide in the simplest spots though. I waited for him to show up. When he did, all he said was "Let's go." As he left, I followed him. We took off through the woods; careful not to be seen by anyone that might be out walking on a night like this. We got to a certain spot and Brom stopped. He looked over to a tree on the edge of Carvahall and walked towards it. When I started to follow, he told me to wait. I stood in that spot and watched what he was doing.

Brom walked over to the tree and picked something off of the branches. Then he seemed to wait. After a while, I saw Eragon sneaking around in town. He had a few packets in his arms that looked like meat packets. He walked directly to where Brom was at and reached for whatever had been on the tree. As I watched, they started to have a conversation. I felt someone else around so I hid in some bushes and watched for anything that might try to attack me or Brom and Eragon.

Red-Eye started to get very excited now. He seemed to think that there was something of great importance in the near vicinity. A few seconds later, he settled down and started walking towards Brom.

_What are you doing?_

_**Come.**_

_Stay here._

_**Come.**_

_Brom told us to stay here._

_**Come.**_

And with that, he walked away. I tried to talk to him again, but he wouldn't listen to me. As he kept saying _**Come,**_ he kept walking. I ran to him. By the time I got to him, we were almost to Brom and Eragon. They were both looking at me. Brom was looking at me with a look of amusement. Eragon was looking at me with a blank look.

"Eragon. Meet Garu. He is a fellow Rider."

Eragon and I both said "What!" The timing was so perfect that it almost seemed to be one voice.

"Shhh."

Eragon looked back to Carvahall and said, "I think they're looking for me."

"Probably. Shall we go?"

Eragon then said, "I'd like to leave a message for Roran. It doesn't seem right to run off without me telling him why."

"It's been taken care of. I left a letter for him with Gertrude, explaining a few things. I also cautioned him to be on guard for certain dangers. Is that satisfactory?"

Eragon agreed and prepared to leave. We left and headed to Eragon's house.

When we got to Eragon's house, I was amazed to see how much damage was done to the property. The house was destroyed, the barn gone, and nature was already reclaiming everything.

Suddenly, we were all buffeted by a gust of air as something flew over us. I immediately recognized what it was when it landed in front of us. What was now there was a sapphire dragon. It stood many times larger than Red-Eye and was obviously many times more graceful. It looked at Brom and I with a lot of curiosity. It seemed to be analyzing us. Brom then began to ask Eragon questions.

As the questions were answered, I learned many things about the dragon. First and foremost was that her name, for she was a female, was Saphira. She was also older than Red-Eye and much more connected with Eragon than I was with Red-Eye. This was obvious by the way she acted and the way they seemed to be able to communicate.

Eragon went into the house and scrounged around for a few things. When he returned, he was carrying a bow, a quiver, and a travel pack.

While Eragon was searching the house, Saphira and Red-Eye acquainted themselves. They looked each other over, smelled each other, and seemed to communicate. I contacted Red-Eye and tried to find out what he thought of Saphira. His mind seemed to be an impenetrable barrier though. I could get nothing out of him.

When it seemed that Eragon and Brom were ready to leave, Saphira took off. Brom told me to have Red-Eye follow her and I relayed the message. After this, we began to travel.

We made a wide loop around this one spot. When we got to a certain spot though, Eragon went directly into the brush. We struggled our way through the brush until we got to a large clearing. There was brush all around the clearing and an open area above so that the dragons could get in. The dragons were already there. The clearing seemed to be large enough for all of us. We set up camp in the middle of the clearing, starting a fire and putting food on the fire. It was only then that Red-Eye contacted me.

_**Nice.**_

_The clearing?_

_**Yes.**_

_And Saphira?_

_**Yes.**_

_You are learning more every day. Just today you have learned how to say come and nice. Have you learned anything else?_

_**A little.**_

_Enough to carry on a conversation?_

_**No.**_

_Oh. Ok. That's fine. You are still learning. I look forward to the day that we can carry on a good conversation._

With that, the conversation ended. It was then that we settled down to eat.


	5. Deciding your fate

Disclaimer: I do not own any of CP's characters, only mine.

After my conversation with Red-Eye, I picked up on Brom and Eragon's conversation. When I came into the conversation, Eragon had just asked Brom how he could talk to Saphira.

"Very well, if it's answers you want, it's answers you'll get, but they may not be to your liking."

At this comment, he left the area by the fire and went to his pack. He pulled an object out of his pack that was wrapped in cloth. It was between three and four feet long and seemed to be very precious to Brom. In the process of unwrapping it, he revealed a sword the likes of I had never seen. The sheath was blood red and seemed to be brand new. There wasn't even a scratch on it. The only thing that marred the surface of the sheath was a strange symbol. Brom handed the sword to Eragon. Eragon took the sword and slid it out of the sheath. There was no sound as the sword slid out of the sheath.

The blade of the sword was the same color of red as the sheath. The hilt was wrapped with a thin silver wire. The pommel itself was incredibly beautiful, including the egg-sized teardrop ruby set in the top. The sword seemed to become a part of Eragon's arm as he pulled it out of the sheath. The sword remained in my mind as I spoke to Red-Eye about it.

_Why have I never seen this blade? Am I not to be trusted as Brom trusts Eragon?_

_**No.**_

_No what. I am not to be trusted?_

_**No.**_

_What then. Is this something that Brom was holding onto just for Eragon?_

_**Yes.**_

_Did you know about this?_

_**Yes.**_

_Can Brom talk to you too?_

_**Yes.**_

_Is there something going on between Brom and Eragon that I don't know about?_

_**No.**_

_Oh. Ok. I'm just confused that, after all this time that I have been training with Brom, he decided to give Eragon that sword._

We then ended our conversation. When I looked up again, Saphira touched the sword with her snout. The sword rippled and shimmered like water.

"That's the sort of thing I'm talking about. Dragons will constantly amaze you. Things … happen around them, mysterious things that are impossible anywhere else. Even though the Riders worked with dragons for centuries, they never completely understood their abilities. Some say that even the dragons don't know the full extent of their powers. They are linked with this land in a way that lets them overcome great obstacles. What Saphira did illustrates my earlier point: there is much you don't know."

With that, they went into another conversation about Eragon's plans. I was tired so I told them that I was going to bed. I hadn't thought to bring my bedroll. It was still at the house. I went over to Red-Eye and asked him if I could curl up with him. I know that he was very warm so I though that if I curled up to him, I would be able to stay warm. When I curled up to him, he curled around me and put his wing over me. The snow that had been setting on the ground started to melt. I let Red-Eye know and he scraped away what snow he could. By the time he was done scraping, there was only a small layer of snow on the ground. I curled up to him and was asleep before I knew it.

When I awoke, both Brom and Eragon were already awake. Brom was working with the leather and Eragon was working on his pack and organizing the supplies that they had. After putting my supplies in with Brom and Eragon's, we found out that we would only have enough supplies for us to get to the next town. By the time Brom got done with the leather, it was already getting dark. Eragon and Brom decided what we were planning and then we went to sleep.

The next day, we headed to Therinsford. While we were getting ready to leave, Brom approached me.

"Are you still going to travel with us?"

"I have trusted you this far. Why would I decide to leave you behind? Anyways, there are many things that I wish to learn yet."

"I was hoping that you would stay with us. I have a lot that I still want to teach you."

After we had made this decision, we decided to leave. We decided to have the dragons stay hidden. I also told Red-Eye to try to learn as much off of Saphira as he could.

During our travels, Brom, Eragon, and I all sparred. Eragon had a lot to learn when it came to swordplay. Eragon and I would spar at times, but most of the time, Brom and I would spar. Then Brom and Eragon would spar. I laughed the first time that Brom and Eragon sparred because of how bad Eragon got beat. Eragon was knocked out the one time during the fight, even though he was very improvisational. He tried to leave, but got hit again by Brom. Brom then showed him some of the moves that he had showed me. I was surprised by how quickly Eragon learned the moves. It had taken me a long time to learn the moves that he seemed to learn in a matter of a few tries. It wasn't much longer after this that Brom let Eragon stop. Eragon flopped down on his blankets and groaned. Saphira made an odd sound that I realized later was her laughing.

After Eragon plopped down, Brom threw the stick at me. As soon as I caught it, I attacked Brom. He was ready though. He blocked the attack and attacked back. This time, I was the one to get laughed at as I got hit across the back of the head.

"I thought that I would see how well you could put together attacks and blocks. You need to learn to always be ready for any attack to come from anywhere. Again."

I attacked again and again got hit. What made it worse was that I was hit in the exact same place. This time, it made me dizzy. Obviously, this wasn't going to be our usual session. Brom was moving faster and attacking harder. He stepped back and waited on me to attack him. This time, I tried to attack him while preparing to block. He blocked my attack and immediately attacked. I blocked the attack and got ready to attack again when I was hit again.

"Stop hitting me in the same spot. It is really starting to hurt."

"If that one spot is the spot that I can hit, that is the one spot that I will hit."

He attacked this time. I was ready for it, but not for the attack that came after. It seemed that he was trying to hurt me as much as he could because, again, he hit me in the same spot. By this time, that one spot was bleeding freely. I didn't feel it though. By this time, he had pissed me off. This time, I attacked and didn't stop. I hit harder and faster than I ever had before. The only reason that I stopped before taking Brom's head off was because he hit me hard enough to knock me out. When I woke up, I had a splitting headache. All I heard was laughing. I looked over and saw Eragon doubled over because he was laughing so hard. I decided to challenge Eragon. I walked over to where Brom had put his stick, picked it up, and threw it at Eragon.

Before I got to say anything, Brom stopped me.

"I would allow you to challenge Eragon if he were more experienced, but for now, he needs more practice and time to get to the level that you are at right now. You need to learn to control your anger and use what anger that you have to your advantage."

"How can I do that when I have no control over when my anger will reach its peak?"

"You need to learn how much you can take before you break. You are much faster and much more aggressive when you are angered, but you are also more reckless. The only reason that I could hit you when you were that mad was that you left yourself completely open. I knew that there was no way that you could block it from where you were at and your position."

"I don't know how to control this anger though."

"That will come with time and practice."

With that, we relaxed and went to sleep. When I woke up in the morning, I realized how sore I was going to be if Brom kept this up. We decided to continue on our way to Therinsford. We knew that the dragons would attract attention, so we had them hide instead of flying with us. We didn't want any extra attention from what Brom was saying.

**Thanks for reading. I have been working on editing all of these stories and need to know if you like them. Please R&R**


	6. Traveling with dragons

Disclaimer: I don't know who requires these, but here it is; I do not own any of CP's Characters. Only mine.

Before we started, we put all of the items that we wouldn't be needing on Saphira and Red-Eye. I kept my walking stick and my bag. Eragon kept his bow and bag. Brom kept his bag and sword. As we were traveling, Brom taught us more about dragons. Before we arrived at Therinsford, we had to cross a bridge. A gristly man blocked our way past the bridge.

The man said that he required five crowns to cross the bridge. I was amazed to see Brom hand over the coins without a word. I was even more surprised to see him hold out the money from the man's purse on the other side of the bridge. Then we had a good laugh about the bellow the guy let out.

We had decided earlier that we needed horses. They weren't hard to find. Brom asked a young man on the street where we could find anyone that had horses and all he did was point to a barn on the edge of town.

The barn's doors were open, revealing rows of tack on the walls of the barn. There were several stalls along the sides of the barn and a man brushing down a horse at the far end. As they approached, Brom announced our presence.

"That's a beautiful animal."

"Yes indeed. His name's Snowfire. Mine's Haberth."

Throughout the whole conversation between Haberth and Brom, I looked through the stalls and at the tack. At the end of the conversation, Brom got my attention and told me to go with Eragon. Eragon was leading three horses. The first was a bay. The second was the stallion that Haberth had been brushing when we entered the barn. The third was a pure black stallion. The tack and saddles were already on the horses.

When Brom finally met us outside of Therinsford, he told us about the Ra'zac obviously passing this way. They then talked about how Eragon had contacted the mind of the bay that he was supposed to ride.

"It's unusual for one as young as you to have the ability. Most Riders had to train for years before they were strong enough to contact anything other than their dragon."

After this conversation, we put everything into our saddlebags and mounted the horses. After traveling for a while, we passed under the remains of Utgard, the outpost of the Riders. Brom gave us a lesson on Utgard while we passed underneath it.

_I don't want anything like this to happen while we are riders._

And it will not.

_How can you be so sure?_

_If there is something that you put your mind to, than there is nothing that will stop us. We now hold the power and knowledge of generations in our hands. We are learning many of the ways of old, ways that are now gone from this land. We will be as Edoc'sil was, unconquerable. _

_I am glad that you think so much of me. I know that you see so much more than what I do, but I don't feel like I am the one to take on this power on my shoulders._

_Than I will help you._

_Thank you._

By the time our conversation was over, we were at the site that we were going to camp at. I looked around and saw that we were at the edge of the spine. We were surrounded by trees, except for an open path that looked out over the plains. All there was to see was a uniform tan. The sky seemed to join with this tan at the edge of the plain. As far as I could tell, all there was was the plain.

_Can you see anything at the far end of the plains?_

_**No.**_

_Is there anything to see on the plains?_

_No._

_I hope that we will not have to cross these plains. They seem like they go on forever._

_If we do, there is no reason to hide. There is no place for me to hide. I will fly above you._

_If we do that, I would like to ride you. I haven't tried riding you yet and would like to see what it is like. That is if you are willing._

_I would be happy to. I had hoped that we would ride together sooner, but we didn't have a chance. During this time, we can learn many things about one another that we have yet to learn._

_There are many things about you that I would like to learn. _

_And I, you._

At this point, Eragon was naming his horse. Cadoc seemed to be a good name for his horse.

"And what will you name your horse?"

"I haven't thought about that. Give me time to think and I will see what I come up with."

The conversation ended on this note, even though the night didn't. When I looked up at Brom, he was carving. When I looked to see what he was carving, I smiled and cringed. He was carving a sword.

After dinner, he stood up and threw the stick at Eragon. When he did, he yelled, "Catch!" Eragon groaned and complained, but got up and began training again.

After a while, they finished. When they did, Brom surprised me. I had walked over and picked up the sword when he said, "Wait."

"What?"

"When you normally went out into the spine to fish, what did you use to protect yourself from the dangers therein?"

"I always used this staff or my dagger. Why?"

"I want to see how good you are with it. You are not yet proficient enough with the sword to have any reason to carry one, so I want to see if you can defend yourself."

"Oh. Ok. What are you going to use?"

"I thought that, since you thought to bring along your staff, that would be your weapon of choice. With that on my mind, I looked for a good stick to use as a staff."

He picked up a staff off of the ground. It was approximately one foot longer than Brom was tall and was just thick enough to be used as a weapon.

"Are you ready?"

"I guess."

"There is no guessing. If you are ready, you are ready. Are you ready?"

"Yeah." _I guess._

"Than defend yourself."

The attack that Brom threw at me caught me off guard, but I was good enough with the staff to block it and retaliate. He jabbed at me, which I blocked immediately. I attacked him with a jab to the stomach that I turned into a swing at his legs. He had no choice but to jump the swing, but upon jumping, he attacked with a downward slice that hit me on the shoulder as I tried to dodge it. I resumed attacking him when he landed, swinging the staff high and switching into a forward swing. Somehow, he managed to block both and attack me. He jabbed and swung, the same exact way I had earlier, giving me the chance to try an attack that I had only tried once before, with excellent results. As I jumped, I kicked out towards Brom and brought the staff down at the same time. I figured out that I wasn't going to try that again when he backpedaled and hit me underneath the knee.

When I landed, I couldn't land it right and landed hard on my knee. The rocks underneath my knee didn't feel good. When I tried to stand up, my leg wouldn't hold my weight and I fell back down.

"Are you alright?"

"I don't know. My leg won't hold my weight. It can't really even feel it."

"That was very good. You are improvisational and show some skill with the staff. You still need to know how to wield a sword though. Can you stand?"

When I tried to stand, a searing pain went through my leg. I collapsed on the ground and held my leg. When the pain subsided, I was sweating and both Brom and Eragon were looking at me with concern.

"Let me help you up, see if that helps."

Before Brom could get to me, Red-Eye landed in the clearing that we were in. He approached us and growled. Eragon and Brom both backed away as he approached.

_What's wrong?_

_**I felt your pain as my own. When I tried to reach you, I was unable to. I thought that you were in trouble. If these two hurt you, I will give them the just reward.**_

_No. They did not hurt me, at least not on purpose. Brom and I were sparring with staffs when I landed wrong. When I went to stand up, my leg would not hold me and I fell back down. When I again tried to stand, the pain that you felt went through my leg and I fell back down. I must have blacked out because, when I awoke, both Brom and Eragon were looking down at me. Brom had just asked if he could help me stand when you came in._

_**I see. You will have to be more careful when you spar from now on. I will let Brom and Eragon help you now.**_

With that, he backed away.

"What was that all about?"

"He was being protective. He will allow you to help me now."

When I was finally up, I decided to try to put weight on my leg. Again, the pain that I had felt before went through my leg.

"You may have broken something when you fell. Let me see something."

When Brom came over, he placed a hand on my knee. He slowly moved his hand around, adding a slight amount of pressure each time that he did. By the time he was done, I was grimacing and had tears in my eyes.

"I don't think that you broke anything, but you severely bruised it. You may not be able to walk on that leg for a while. You will have to ride your horse or Red-Eye."

"I was planning to ride Red-Eye while we were in the plains, so that will be my choice. I will try every evening to walk on my leg. It may be painful, but I will be of no use until this heals."

"I agree with you on one condition; do not get too far ahead of us. We may need your help even though you are not mobile. This would also keep you from getting lost or being seen by anyone that need not see you. Do you agree?"

"Yes, I agree. If you need me for anything, is there any way that you can reach me?"

"I can contact Red-Eye and have him tell you."

"Ok."

_Is that ok with you?_

_**Yes. It will also give us more time to get to know each other than we would normally have, even had you ridden me normally. I will keep watch over you and not get too far ahead of Brom and Eragon. If Brom contacts me, I will begin to descend before I contact you though. **_

_Ok._

"Red-Eye agrees as well."

**Ok. That chapter was a little short. I'm going to try to keep them about this length though. I don't want them too short or too long. Please review. It would be much appreciated.**


	7. The plains

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of CP's characters. I only own mine.**

In the morning, we began to descend the slope. I rode Red-Eye and watched as they had a hard time getting the horses down the slope. As we watched, Red-Eye and I talked about all the things that we had seen and many of the things that we may yet see.

_After this trip is over, what are our plans?_

_**Our plans are anything that we want them to be. We are powerful enough to change many things. The only people that we will have to listen to are each other. We may decide to join the resistance to Galbatorix, we may join him, or we may stay free of all. The choice is ours.**_

_Until the time that we are ready for that choice, I wish to follow Brom. He knows what he is doing and may be able to help us fill in a few gaps._

_**Brom is a good man. He has led us through many trials. He may yet bring us through them all.**_

_I do not want to put all of these trials on Brom. We need to learn how to protect ourselves and possibly learn how to do many other things, but then I wish to no longer be a hassle to Brom. Eragon seems to be favored to us staying with him, but we may not be able to stay with him either. _

_**The choice is ours.**_

Even as we talked, Brom and Eragon were nearing the end of their descent. Red-Eye and I both decided to join them at the bottom of the hill and descended. As we descended, I looked again at the plains. They seemed to be in constant motion from the incessant wind. As we landed, dirt from the parched land flew into our eyes. A river wound its way to the north.

While we waited on Eragon and Brom to descend the rest of the slope, Red-Eye and I explored some of the surrounding area. There was little to see.

When Eragon and Brom finally got to the bottom of the slope, they began searching for any signs of the Ra'zac. They found them on the trail going right through the middle of the plains.

"It seems they've gone to Yazuac" Brom said perplexed.

Eragon immediately asked, "Where's that?"

To answer his question, Brom told Eragon, "Due east and four days away, if all goes well. It's a small village situated by the Ninor River." He gestured at the river running to our north. "Our only supply of water is here. We'll have to replenish our waterskins before attempting to cross the plains. There isn't a pool or stream between here and Yazuac."

Eragon filled the waterskins and watered the horses while Brom helped me down from Red-Eye. He helped me to the stream and we all drank as much as we could. Saphira and Red-Eye joined in as they took several draughts of water from the river. When we were all finished, Brom helped me back to Red-Eye and we began on our trek across the plains.

The first thing that I noticed as we began to cross the plains was how dry the wind was. It immediately chapped our lips and made dust fly in our faces. It wasn't as bad further up, but the wind was harder yet. The first two days were nothing but wind and travel. Both days, I tried to walk on my leg and found that it was going to take longer than I thought for it to heal. I always fell as soon as I tried to put any weight on my leg.

The third day, we all woke up feeling better than we had been during these days. The whole reason for the better feelings was because the wind had stopped. Looking ahead though, we saw a huge storm cloud in the distance.

Grimacing, Brom said, "Normally I wouldn't go into a storm like that, but we are in for a battering no matter what we do, so we might as well get some distance covered."

Red-Eye and I decided to go a little ahead. When we reached the storm front, it was still calm.

_I don't like the looks of this storm. Let's turn back. _

_**Agreed. We will stay with Brom and Eragon. I would like to stay close to the ground as well. A storm like this will have wind along with it of varying intensities. **_

_I don't mind a little wind. It might feel good. _

_**What will you do if the wind is to great and knocks you out of the saddle? What will you do then? What will you do if I cannot help you? No. We will stay close to the ground.**_

_If we do that, I wish to ride my horse. I still have to name him. I think that I have a good name for him though. What do you think about Nightmane?_

_**It sounds like a good name for a horse. I will allow you to ride your horse. I will fly close to you. This storm looks bad.**_

While we were talking, we had circled back to Brom and Eragon. We landed ahead of Brom and Eragon yet ahead of the storm.

"What's wrong?"

"Red-Eye and I agreed that I will stay with you and Eragon. I also have a name for my horse."

"Why is it that you decided to stay with us?"

"Red-Eye believes that the storm may have some wind coming along with it. He does not want to have me with him in case anything happens."

"Red-Eye is there to protect you. He will be able to keep you from harm."

"He is worried about if the wind is too strong for him to be able to help him. Besides, I haven't spent enough time learning what I need from you."

"You have spent most of your time with Red-Eye. I thought that it would do you both good. If you wish to stay with us, there is nothing that I can do to stop you. Where will Red-Eye be?"

"He will fly above us."

"Fine. What was the name that you wished to give to your horse?"

"I wanted to call him Nightmane."

"A beautiful name."

**So here we go. Chapter 5. Hopefully you guys like it. **

**Please R&R.**


	8. Yazuac

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of CP's characters, only mine.**

Although we had gotten a little water during the storm, we drank the last of our water the next morning.

Eragon was obviously concerned when he said; "I hope we're going in the right direction, because we'll be in trouble if we don't reach Yazuac today."

Brom didn't look troubled at all. "I've traveled this way before. Yazuac will be in sight before dusk."

"Perhaps you see something I don't." Eragon was obviously perturbed. "How can you know that when everything looks exactly the same for leagues around?"

Brom countered Eragon by saying; "I am not guided by the land, but by the stars and sun. They will not lead us astray. Come! Let us be off. It is foolish to conjure up woe where none exists. Yazuac will be there."

We again began to travel. I wanted to ride Red-Eye, but Brom wanted me with him. We traveled throughout the day, not even stopping for lunch. There was no water to use for cooking so we decided not to stop. We traveled most of the day, not seeing any sign of Yazuac. Around noon, Saphira and Red-Eye saw Yazuac.

Yazuac was still a good distance away. The only reason that we could see it was because of the uniform flatness of the plains. Eventually we got close enough to see a river on either side of the town. It was then that Eragon and Brom stopped.

"The Ninor River." Brom explained, pointing to the river on either side of Yazuac.

"Saphira will be seen if she stays with us much longer. Should she hide while we go into Yazuac?"

Brom looked around, scratching his chin. "See that bend in the river? Have her wait there. It's far enough from Yazuac so no one should find her, but close enough that she won't be left behind. We'll go through the town, get what we need, and them meet her." Looking at me, he included; "You should have Red-Eye do the same."

I explained the situation to Red-Eye.

_**I agree. I do not like to be separated from you, even if it is for both of our safety. **_

_I do not like to be separated from you either. It is hard for me to make this choice as well. We must get provisions though. We cannot hunt the way that you can. We have to get other items that we need as well. It would not look right to have two people and three horses. There would be suspicion, something that we want little of. If there was a way that I could keep you with me, I would. That is not possible in this situation._

_**I will keep in contact. If you need me for anything, I will be there as fast as possible.**_

Eragon had obviously had the same conversation with Saphira, because she grumbled and flew away low to the ground. Red-Eye followed moments later.

We soon continued on our way, keeping a swift pace. Soon Yazuac was clearly in sight. The chimneys of several of the houses had smoke wafting out of them, but we could see no one. The town was completely silent.

Brom and Eragon stopped. They started conversing back and forth.

"There aren't any dogs barking."

"No."

"Doesn't mean anything, though."

"…No."

After a moment's silence, Eragon continued saying; "Somebody should have seen us by now."

"Yes."

"Then why hasn't anyone come out?"

Brom looked around and said; "Could be afraid."

"Could be. … And if it's a trap? The Ra'zac might be waiting for us."

"We need provisions and water."

"There's the Ninor."

"Still need provisions."

"True. So we go in?"

"Yes, but not like fools. This is the main entrance to Yazuac. If there's an ambush, it'll be along here. No one will expect us to arrive from a different direction."

"Around the side, then?"

Brom nodded and pulled out his sword. Eragon notched an arrow and held it at the ready. I decided that the only thing that I had to use other than my walking stick to help us was Red-Eye. I called to him.

_Be ready to come in great haste. Something is not right here. _

_**I am ready. What is wrong? **_

_The town seems deserted. It is silent as a grave. No one is in sight. Just be ready to fly._

_**Alright. Stay safe.**_

_You will be here to keep me safe._

We rode around Yazuac and started in. The sight that we beheld at the center of town was horrid.

In the center of town were the citizens of Yazuac. They were not alive though. They were piled on each other, stained with blood. It made no difference to the murderers whether the victims were men, women, or children, nor whether they were young or old. To make this point clear, there was a spear at the top of the pile impaling the form of an infant.

Eragon shot a crow off the spear when it landed on it and threw up over the side of Cadoc. While this was going on, I was exploring. The next thing that I heard Brom say was "Ride! There are still Urgals here."

The next few seconds were a blur. When I turned around to ride away, an Urgal hit me off the saddle. My staff went flying and I landed hard on the ground. When I looked around, there was an Urgal standing between me and the exit of Yazuac.

_Help! We are being attacked._

With this statement, I felt the acknowledgment coming from Red-Eye and felt him take off. The only problem was the Urgal standing in front of me and the fact that I was now unarmed. All I could think about was getting away from this Urgal. I got on my feet and started running. Nothing that I could do was making this Urgal any further away from me; in fact, he was catching up. Before long, I wound up back where we had started. It was then that I saw my staff.

I changed my course from where I had been going and ran directly to my staff. I reached down and grabbed it while continuing to run. I turned to look at where the Urgal was. The sword swinging at me was the only thing that I had to know. I dropped down as low as I could, ducking the sword, and brought up my staff between his legs at the same time. When the staff connected, the Urgal doubled over in pain. I stood up and brought the staff up into his face. When it connected, the Urgals head was knocked backwards and he dropped his sword. I took this chance to grab his sword. As soon as I got a hold of the sword, the Urgal grabbed me. He grabbed me by the throat and lifted me off the ground. I started swinging the sword at his chest and realized it was useless when it bounced off his breastplate. I then swung it at his arm.

When the sword hit his arm, it lodged in the bone. He immediately dropped me, reaching up with his other arm to grab at the sword. It was ripped out of my grip, stuck as it was in the Urgals arm bone. I landed next to a spear that sat on the ground. Since I was unarmed, I picked the spear up and attacked the Urgal. He reached over to pull the sword out of his arm, but was not fast enough. I stabbed him in the chest with the spear. He let out a grunt and swung at me, barely missing my head with his fist. I pulled the spear out of his chest and swung it as I would my staff, aiming at his face. The blade of the spear sliced through the Urgals cheek when it connected. I then brought it back around and knocked him backwards with the blunt end of the spear.

I was amazed when the Urgal still rushed me when he was injured as he was. This time, though it was not him, but me to be injured. He rushed me and swung low with a punch. I tried to block it with the spear, but he pushed it aside, continuing on his path. He hit my ribs with the force of a bear, seemingly breaking several. This was not his savior though, as he broke the spear, moved it into a spot that, when he fell, he landed on it and stabbed himself in the heart.

When he landed, he landed on top of me, almost crushing me and causing me to not be able to move. I struggled for a moment before passing out from pain.

**So what do you think? I want to hear what you have to say. Please R&R.**


	9. The Aftermath

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of CP's characters, only mine.**

When I woke up, I heard a screaming inside my head.

_**GARU!**_

_I am here. I am unable to move and am in pain. I need help._

_**I will be there shortly. I was unable to reach you earlier. Your mind was closed.**_

_I passed out from the pain. I think that I have a couple of broken ribs._

Shortly, Red-Eye got to where I was at and pulled the Urgal off the top of me.

_Are the others ok? I haven't seen them since we came in._

_**Brom is injured. Eragon is ok, even though he does not seem himself. They are preparing to leave. Can you stand?**_

_I don't know. I may need your help._

Red-Eye moved his head around and laid it next to me. I grabbed onto him and attempted to pull myself up. Through the pain, I managed to stand up. I looked around and saw Nightmane. Red-Eye helped me get on Nightmane and we went looking for Eragon and Brom.

Eragon and Brom were back where we had come in Yazuac. Eragon was tending to Brom, who was on Saphira. His arm was wrapped in cloth. It looked to be cut. Brom was awake and talking to Eragon. He looked to me.

"Good. You're ok. Are you injured?"

"Yes, though I know not how bad."

_**Will you fly with me?**_

_I will stay with Eragon. He seems to need help. You can fly by me though. _

_**Will you be able to ride your horse until we get to a place to stop?**_

_I must. I will ride through the pain. It is nothing that I have not done before._

_**Fine.**_

_You are not satisfied?_

_**No. Every time I am away from you, you get hurt. I do not wish to stay away from you any longer. **_

_We must if we are to do what we have to. _

_**Fine.**_

We slowly made our way out of Yazuac after Brom and Eragon were finally ready to leave. The only time that we stopped was to fill our waterskins and to let the horses drink. The whole time we were traveling, the dragons flew above us. Eragon told me that we were still going in the right direction, yet he still seemed to be thinking. I tried to ask him what he was thinking, but he just pushed me off.

Just before it got dark, Eragon swerved off the trail. He led us to a clearing that the dragons and Brom were already in. Eragon asked to see how Brom was doing and then we sat down to eat. I felt better after eating and was already beginning to heal. My knee had healed as we had traversed the plains, much to the surprise of Brom, and my ribs were already starting to heal.

Before Eragon had started to go through what had happened with him in Yazuac, Brom surprised me by addressing me and saying, "Come here."

I went over to him and he felt my ribs to see if there was anything broken.

"Again it is just bruised. It does not seem to be as bad as your knee was though. It should heal much faster. You may be healed in a matter of a couple days. You seem to heal much faster than most. Your leg healed in the time that it took for us to get across the plains when it should have taken weeks."

"That's good. I have missed much of the training that I need. Once we both get healed, we can again begin training."

"You will heal before I will, but I will be able to instruct you with my left hand."

Eragon then began explaining what happened with him in Yazuac. He started from the time that Brom had been knocked out. I already knew what happened before that, but I had no idea what had happened after that. He told of attacking the Urgal that had attacked Brom, running from the Urgals, and using magic. When he mentioned this, Brom lightly perked up, but made it to where it was hardly noticeable. After he finished, Brom sat for a moment.

Brom then broke the silence by saying: "Have you used this power before?"

"No. Do you know anything about it?"

With a thoughtful expression, Brom continued by saying, "A little. It seems I owe you a debt for saving my life. I hope I can return the favor someday. You should be proud; few escape unscathed from the slaying of their first Urgal. But the manner in which you did it was very dangerous. You could have destroyed yourself and the whole town."

They argued about whether it was right for Eragon to use magic or not and if Brom should teach us or not. We also figured out that Brom was a magician. We also found out that magic had several limits. One of the rules was that if you passed these limits, you die. No pleading. No way to get around it. You die.

Brom impressed this on Eragon and me. Not only did he do this, but he also cautioned both of us to not try anything tonight.

The next day, we began to learn about magic. We learned how it worked, how the original Riders were trained, and the differences between wizards, sorcerers, witches, and shades. We also learned about the Ancient Language, how you cannot lie in the Ancient Language, and a few words in the Ancient Language. We also learned about true names and how people found them out. We also found out that there were projects, like raising the dead, that would kill you. Then the fun began.

Brom reached down and picked a couple of pebbles off the ground. He handed one to Eragon and one to me. He then taught us the words to lift the pebble off our palms and hold it in the air. The words were _stenr reisa._

He told us to try raising the pebble. When I started, I looked at the pebble, said the words, and watched as nothing happened. I went to Brom and asked him about the magic.

"I have never before used magic. How is it that I access this power?"

"Magic is a fickle thing. It may not be easy, but you will have to find this power within yourself."

"How?"

"Search for it. It is there, you just have to find it."

We were then interrupted by Eragon. He snapped at Brom saying; "This is impossible."

"No," countered Brom, "I'll say when it's impossible or not. Fight for it! Don't give in this easily. Try again."

Eragon stopped arguing and closed his eyes. I let myself fall back, focusing on the pebble and trying to search within myself at the same time. As I searched, all things around me seemed to disappear. Soon, the only thing that I saw, heard, or felt was the pebble. It filled my mind, going through all feelings, thoughts, and sights until it came on something different. The pebble continued on the path that it had been following, but I stopped and searched this disturbance.

I felt anger, hatred, and fear coming from it. I also felt happiness, love, and strength. I began to circle this spot, looking for a way in the whole time. Eventually, I got back to where I had started. I had still found no way into this spot. I decided to see just how durable this barrier around it was. I hit it with my hand, then kicked it, and then slammed up against it. It finally broke.

"Stenr reisa."

The pebble rose off my palm and floated in the air. I was panting and sweating, but the pebble didn't even wobble. I looked at Brom and Eragon. Brom was surprised, but not as much as I thought he would be. Brom looked at Eragon and said, "Yes! And this time be quicker about it." He then rode up to me. The pebble was still floating above my hand.

"You can release it now."

I looked down and was surprised to see the pebble still floating there. I released the magic, feeling it flow from my mind to the barrier. The barrier re-closed, but it didn't feel like it was as strong. I also knew where it was.

"I want you to try again. This time be faster about it. It took you almost ten minutes to lift that pebble. It should take you no time at all."

I then began to try to enter the barrier. I found it without any problem and knew what I had to do. I tested it to see just how strong this barrier was. This time, it didn't have the strength that it had before, and shattered when I kicked it.

"Stenr reisa."

Again, the stone rose off my hand. This time it rose to eye level and stopped. I wasn't panting, even though I was still sweating. Brom had me do it repeatedly. Eventually I got to where it would only take me a few moments to get the stone to eye level. Later in the afternoon, Brom stopped us and told us to hold on to the pebbles. He then began to teach us about the Ancient Language. That evening, Eragon and Brom sparred. I watched the whole time, trying to memorize moves and learning some of the tactics that they both used.

_**You are unusually quiet.**_

_Many things have been put on our plate. We are now very powerful, but we also have a long way to go before we get to where we need. Not a day goes by in which we do not learn something new. I do not know if I can learn everything that I need to as fast as I need to._

_**There is no need to learn everything all at once. We need to have time and patience. Nothing happens without a little strife. If life were easy, there would be no need to learn any of the things that we are. Life is not easy though. Many times, there will be things that, even with our increased power, we will not be able to overtake by ourselves.**_

_Yet, we will be the ones that everyone looks up to. We will be the ones that everyone relies on, the ones that everyone wants to have help them._

_**Yet, they will also be willing to help us if we are ever in need. It will not all be put on us. There will be many people to look up to, whether it be Brom or others. Just know that I will always be there for you if you need me. You are my hope, my life, and my love. I love you and want nothing to happen to you. **_

_Thank you. I love you too._

"Catch!"

I looked up just in time to see the sword coming at me.

"I thought that we were going to wait until I was healed. I am not yet in good enough condition to fight."

"I think you are. We will see. It may help to stretch the muscles that have been bruised, allowing your body to heal even faster. I have not had a chance to see you fight either. Not for a while."

I picked up the sword and prepared myself. I waited on Brom to make the first move, trying to think of something to do to keep from hurting myself yet beating Brom. Brom swung and I parried. When the swords connected, he knocked mine back and hit me with his. It hit me in the ribs, at the place where the Urgal had hit me. It doubled me over, causing me to almost get sick. I stood up and got back in my stance. Brom looked at me with concern.

"Do you want to continue?"

"Yes. Even if it hurts me, I must continue. A staff will not help me as much as I would like it to. I must learn how to use a sword. You can teach me how. I have to learn how and get stronger and better."

At this, he got in his stance. This time, I attacked him. I slashed at his ribs. As the swords connected, I allowed my elbow to bend and I elbowed him in the face. I immediately pulled the sword out and swung at his ribs again. This time it was on the other side. He blocked and attacked, swinging at my ribs. I parried, as before, and, as before, doubled over when the sword hit my side.

We continued on our sparring for a little longer. The forth time he hit my ribs, I fell on the ground from the pain and threw up. He decided that it was time to quit. We then relaxed and went to bed. I held my side through the night to try to decrease the pain.

We continued doing this the whole trip. The next day, Eragon and I sparred as well as Brom and I. I was surprised that my ribs had healed the way they had. I was almost to the point that I could freely move. Pressure on it still hurt, but not as much as it had before.

When Eragon and I sparred, we were extremely careful. We didn't know each other's strengths or weaknesses, nor did we know each other's style. Eragon eventually got the upper hand and beat me. I was downtrodden, but knew that he had had more practice than I had.

We were all changing on this trip. I noticed it on Eragon and myself. We were becoming stronger and faster. Our power with magic increased. We became closer to the same level with swordsmanship, even though it was rare for me to win. Eragon always seemed to hit harder and more accurately. I was more tactical and precise.

Red-Eye and Saphira were changing as well. They were both taller than the horses. The scales on Saphira sparkled brilliantly, making her incredibly easy to see. Red-Eye's scales became even darker, holding the light. They also sparkled, but they were not as bright as Saphira's. Red-Eye and Saphira now showed a difference in body build as well as looks. Red-Eye was more muscular and powerful than Saphira. Saphira was more graceful and beautiful. It showed the difference between male and female.

We all continued to change as we traveled to Daret, the next town.

**Ok. Longer, but there is more in it. I didn't want to have anything left out that went together. It all goes together.**

**Until next time, adios**

**Please R&R**


	10. Daret

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of CP's characters, only mine.**

Daret was on the river a few days ride away from Yazuac. We learned much about magic and gained abilities with the sword in this time. My ribs fully healed.

Before entering Daret, we had Red-Eye and Saphira hide. They hid closer to town this time.

We rode into town, keeping alert for anything out of the ordinary. The town was abnormally silent. There were footprints of small children, but there was no other sign of them anywhere. We continued to ride through Daret, keeping as quiet as we could.

In the center of Daret, which was empty, Brom spoke up.

"Let's get out of here. I don't like the feel of this."

He turned Snowfire around and urged him into a gallop. Eragon and I both turned and urged our horses after him. Before we got halfway through town, a group of wagons toppled out from behind houses, blocking our way. A man jumped over the wagons and stood at the juncture of the two. He was wearing a sword at his side and held a drawn bow in his hands. Eragon immediately pointed his bow at the man. He then spoke to us, commanding us to lower our weapons and informing us of our situation. As soon as he said something about the sixty archers placed on the roofs, they stood up.

Brom and the man struck up a conversation. In it, I found out that he would allow us to go if we allowed one of his archers to bring us our provisions, his name was Trevor, and, at one time, he was in the empire's army. We also informed him of what we found in Yazuac and Brom told him that they should leave the area. Trevor declined saying that the villagers would have nothing of it. "We have repulsed individual Urgals, and that has given the townspeople a confidence far beyond their abilities," he continued, "I fear that we will all wake up one morning with our throats slashed."

The archer that had gone to get the provisions returned, set the goods by the horses, received the payment required, and left.

Brom found a pair of gloves for Eragon and a pair for me. We both put them on, testing the flexibility and the condition of the gloves. Mine were in excellent condition, though worn with age and use. We filled our saddlebags with the provisions we received and prepared to leave.

Before leaving, Trevor accosted us. "When you enter Dras-Leona, would you do us this favor? Alert the empire to our plight and that of the other towns. If word hasn't reached the king by now, it's cause for worry. And if it has, but he has chosen to do nothing, that too is cause for worry."

Brom agreed and we left Daret, though the archers followed us out of town. After we traveled a distance from Daret, we again began to converse. We talked about the empire, the presence of Urgals, and what we did while in town. We came upon something new. Eragon and I learned that we could see into other people's minds. We also learned that we could block others from getting into our minds. Before Brom could begin teaching us this, we reached Saphira and Red-Eye.

As soon as we reached Saphira, she extended her head towards us. This was not a nice greeting though. She looked upset, focusing fully on Eragon. She hissed at him. Eragon looked over at Brom and then back to Saphira. He seemed to talk to her and then got off Cadoc. As soon as his feet hit the ground, Saphira swept them out from under him. She pinned him to the ground and then looked at him at eye level. They began talking. While they were talking, I started to talk with Red-Eye.

_What's her problem?_

_**He is always getting in trouble when she is away from him. Also, he has not yet ridden her. She wants him to ride her tomorrow. She said it is either that or she will carry him.**_

_Sounds like fun. I believe he is afraid to ride her. _

_**After the scalding he's going to get, I would be too.**_

_Yeah. Wait! Is that humor? From a Dragon?_

Judging from his happiness and the chuckle on his breath, it was. Just now, Eragon told us what was going on.

"She wants me to ride her tomorrow."

Brom answered him almost immediately. "Well, you have the saddle. I suppose that if the two of you stay out of sight, it won't be a problem."

Eventually, Saphira let Eragon up. She took off and Eragon watched her go. We then followed Brom for a little while before making camp.

Normally, Eragon and I would duel after we both dueled with Brom. For some reason though, he wanted us to duel first. As usual, Eragon won the duel. Brom then told us that that was how we were going to decide who was going to duel him. He had me start.

We started in our normal stance. He attacked first, swinging at my ribs. I blocked his attack and attacked. I went from a stab to a swing, sliding down Brom's sword and hitting him in the hand. I continued forward until I hit his chest. That was one of the first times that I had ever hit Brom.

We continued as long as Brom wanted to. He then switched to Eragon. During their duel, Eragon swung hard enough to shatter the two sticks. Brom threw his piece into the fire and surprised us by saying that we use swords.

Eragon immediately protested, saying, "We'll cut each other to ribbons."

Brom countered with, "Not so. Again you forget magic."

He held up his sword and began to concentrate. I immediately felt the magic in the air. I prepared for anything and watched Brom. Soon enough, he came out of his reverie, saying "Geuloth du knifr." As we watched, a small spark jumped between his fingers and he ran it down the edge of the blade. He did the same thing to the other side.

As soon as he was done, he allowed the spark to vanish by taking his hand off the sword and then flipped his hand over and sliced across it. When we looked, there was nothing wrong with his hand. Eragon was stunned, but I was surprised that he had scared me for a moment.

He taught us how to do the same thing: how to pronounce the words and how to use it. Eragon and I both used Zar'roc to practice. We added and removed the protection many times from Zar'roc. When he thought that we would be ready, Brom haad us leave the block on Zar'roc and had Eragon begin the dueling.

After receiving many hits and obviously hurting himself, Eragon quit. Brom allowed this and looked at me. He surprised me by telling me: "Come here. I think it is time that you receive this."

**HAHAHAHAHAHA**

**I love being mean. Don't you love a good cliffhanger every once in a while? If not, write it in your review. If you like cliffhangers, you can write it in your review. If you don't care either way, well… yeah, you can put that in your review too.**

**If you haven't got the message yet, here it is:**

**Please review.**


	11. A Rider's Sword

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of CP's characters, only mine.**

Brom and I walked over to Snowfire and stopped.

"I have kept this for you. It is something that I wanted you to have when you were ready for it. It now seems that you are ready for it."

He pulled out something wrapped in cloth. It was about three feet long. I looked at it and thought that it looked familiar. He began to slowly unwrap it and I realized what it was. The first thing that he unwrapped was a blood red ruby with thin strands of black wire wrapped around it to cut it into quarters. The wire continued down to the pommel, slowly wrapping around the silver pommel at about two inch intervals. The hilt was the same silver as the pommel. The sheath was revealed slowly. I watched to see exactly what it looked like. It was black. In the middle, there was a blood red inscription of a crescent moon. It was only after Brom fully unwrapped the sheath that he pulled the sword out of the sheath.

The blade was as black as night with a blood red stripe going down the center. It was about one hand width across. It had a crescent moon shaped, silver inscription in the middle of the blade. The blade was not tarnished by time nor did it have any sign of use.

"This is Nottsvero. It was the sword of one of your predecessors. It is an elven blade. It will not stain or break, nor will it ever dull."

"It is beautiful."

Red-Eye came over and looked at the blade.

_**It holds power.**_

_Yet, what type of power? I have heard of many types of riders. Was this sword used for good or evil? I would like to know, but I will let Brom tell us in his own way and in his own time._

_**As it should be. He is wise and knows what he is doing. We should allow him to do as he desires.**_

"I wish I could accept this, but I don't believe that I am ready for it. You told Eragon that the Riders received their swords when they were finished with their training. I am not yet finished with my training and do not know if I ever will be."

"You are right. Your training is not finished. This is not the time to decline something that you are given. We are in a fight for our lives. This is one thing that will help you stay alive. Take it."

I had no choice. I took the sword and felt it's weight. I felt its balance. I felt how it felt in my hand. The sword weighed less than I thought that it would. It was balanced better than anything that I had ever felt was. My staff was not even as balanced as it was. Not only that, but it seemed that it was made for my hand. I held it out for Red-Eye to look at it.

When Red-Eye touched the sword, it seemed to change. The surface flowed like water, changing from black to red to silver and back to black. I looked at Brom, looked at Red-Eye, and looked at the sword.

"Many things will happen with Red-Eye that you will not know how to take. That is just one example. Now, block the edges and we will see what you have learned."

I blocked the edges of Nottsvero, prepared to attack, and attacked.

Nottsvero seemed very heavy I my hands, but it was not as heavy as I thought. I could not swing it as easily as I swung the sticks and received many welts and bruises from not being able to block fast enough. There were times, though, that I hit Brom. They were not as hard as Eragon would hit, but they still hurt him.

By the time that we were done, we were both hurt and tired. We decided after this that we would stop and relax for the night.

_**You did good.**_

_I didn't do as well as I had hoped. I still need more practice. I am not as good as Eragon or Brom._

_**You are not as strong as they are. You are more accurate. You hit with skill and speed, where they hit with power. It will take a long time before you are comparable to Brom. You are already comparable to Eragon, though you quell before him.**_

_I fear that he will injure me more than Brom. Brom may hit hard, but he is much more accurate and does not swing as wildly as Eragon._

_**Do not fear Eragon. You have the speed to block all of his attacks and the skill to attack back. You can beat him if you try.**_

_If you think so, then it must be. I still fear his attacks. They are wild and powerful._

Red-Eye agreed, but kept saying that I could beat him if I tried. After a little more conversing, we went to sleep, looking forward to the next day's events.

**So what do you think. Please R&R**


	12. A Ride of Fate

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of CP's characters. I only own mine.**

It was early in the morning when I woke up the next day. It was early enough that the sun was not yet up and there weren't even the first signs of twilight. I got up and began to practice with magic. One of the things that Brom was having us do now with the stone was to make it circle it around our head. I was having a hard time with it. As soon as it would get behind my head, it would fall. I spent the time that it took for the sun to come up practicing.

As soon as the sun came up, Brom and Eragon stirred. Brom got the saddle that he made for Eragon and started to put it on Saphira. By the time that he was done, Eragon had breakfast ready. We ate and Eragon got on Saphira. He seemed nervous while Saphira seemed impatient and excited. They took off, Eragon obviously terrified.

After a few minutes, I saw Saphira barrel roll in the air.

_Can you do that?_

_**If you would like, I could show you. I could also show you many other things.**_

_Let me ask Brom._

I asked Brom, adding in that it had been a while since I had flown with Red-Eye and that there were many things that I had yet to see.

"I agree. I will contact you if I need you for anything."

I saddled Red-Eye, got on, and strapped myself on. Red-Eye took off and started to climb.

I had not ridden Red-Eye for a while and noticed many differences. He no longer struggled to get higher, he was now faster, and he was much more confident. We got high enough that it was starting to get cold and he asked, "_**Are you ready?" **_

_I am ready._

Immediately, he did a perfect barrel roll. It seemed that my stomach was in my throat, but it was fun nonetheless. After he finished the roll, he stopped and asked mo how I liked it.

_That was amazing. I don't know if I could do that many times in a row, but it was fun._

_**There is something else that I would like to show you. For me to show you, you must relax. I will pull you into my mind, merging our two selves into one. I will then show you how I feel when flying.**_

_Ok. _

As soon as I started to relax, I felt Red-Eye's mind pulling at mine. At first, I resisted, though not consciously. As soon as I relaxed the rest of the way, by vision blurred.

The next thing that I saw was through Red-Eye's eyes. It was different than I was used to seeing it. Reds were very pronounced and it seemed to be brighter than what I was used to. I felt Red-Eye's muscles, flexing and relaxing as he drove his wings downwards, gaining altitude. I felt his tail, swinging back and forth, steering us this way and that. I also felt an overwhelming excitement flowing from Red-Eye. We then merged even closer. You could not tell which one of us was which.

We barrel rolled, using our wings to spin ourselves, then went into a flip, flipping completely upside down before diving straight down towards the ground. We snapped our wings open at the right time and straightened out, keeping feet from the tops of the trees. We again flew straight up. As we leveled out, we began to separate. The first thing that I noticed about myself was my mind. Next, I could feel my own emotions, though not as strongly as Red-Eye's. Finally, we fully diverged, becoming two separate bodies.

As I finally got into my own body, I gasped, as if I had been holding my breath, and stammered: "_That's how you feel flying? That is absolutely amazing. Can we do it again?"_

**I'm glad that you like it, but we have other things that we need to do. We need to be able to keep in contact with Brom, just in case he needs us for something. When we get time, we may do that again. Until that point in time, we must stay aware of our surroundings.**

_Ok. Until then, we will keep our minds open and stay aware of our surroundings._

We continued flying for a short while, having some fun while we were at it. We chased a few birds around, keeping just a little behind them and then leaving all of a sudden. We flew by Eragon and Saphira, flying as fast as we could. That was a funny sight. Eragon was amazed at how fast we were going but didn't seem relaxed enough to even wave at us as we were going by.

Eventually, I felt a pressure on my head. It felt like the tendril of thought that Red-Eye and I always shared, but it felt foreign. I tried to fight back, sending a rough tendril of thought back down the path of magic, as Brom had taught us to do. I immediately felt Brom. As soon as I did, I released my thought train, and let his in my head.

_**DON'T DO THAT! I have a hard enough time as is getting a hold of you or Eragon.**_

_I'm sorry. I didn't know that it was you. What do you need?_

_**I need you to come here. I found something.**_

_Do we need to fear anything? Also, where are you?_

_**There is nothing to fear. I am here.**_

With that, he sent me a picture of where he was. I showed Red-Eye where he was and we angled that way, eventually finding it and landing moments before Eragon did the same thing.


	13. A Change in Travel

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of CP's characters. I only own mine.**

When we landed, we saw Brom. He was waving his arms in the middle of a large clearing. He wasn't the happiest with either of us. What we found out from him, when we asked, was that he had gone further downstream when he lost the Ra'zac's footprints. He had backtracked and eventually found this spot. He told us to look around and see what we thought.

While looking around, we found several deep gashes in the ground. They looked like they were made by dragons. Eragon figured this out right as he started to speak. "I don't have any idea what …" Then he looked at Saphira. " This doesn't make any sense, but the only thing that I can think of is that the Ra'zac flew off on dragons. Or else they got onto giant birds and disappeared into the heavens. Tell me you have a better explanation."

Brom explained to us that he had heard of the Ra'zac traveling great distances with incredible speed, but that this was his first piece of evidence of it. He also told us that they were not dragons. Dragons refused to bear a Ra'zac.

Eventually, we ate lunch, trying to think of something that would help us.

_Is there anything that we could do to help?_

_**There is nothing that I know of that would help to get us out of this predicament. If there is no way that we can continue to track and pursue the Ra'zac, what do you plan to do?**_

_I have not thought about that. What would you want to do?_

_**I would follow you to the ends of the earth. The only thing that I would not like to see you do is to join with Galbatorix.**_

_I wouldn't want to serve Galbatorix. He is an evil man. One thing that I would like to learn, though, is why Eragon hates the Ra'zac so much. I have heard Brom and Eragon speaking of this Garrow, but who is he?_

_**Ask him at another time. He seems to hold feelings for something that we do not. He has his reasons for pursuing the Ra'zac, and we will help him until we feel otherwise. Until then, we will go with them. We may learn of his reasons at some point in time, but that time is not now.**_

_Agreed._

Brom had just finished eating when he flipped back his hood and started speaking.

"I have considered every trick I know, every word of power within my grasp, and all the skills we have, but I still don't see how we can find the Ra'zac. Saphira could show herself at some town. That would draw the Ra'zac like flies to honey. But it would be an extremely risky thing to attempt. The Ra'zac would bring soldiers with them, and the king might be interested enough to come himself, which would spell certain death for you and me."

Eragon was dissatisfied with this answer and the next couple of moments of conversation. He eventually got up and stalked away from the fire. I got up at this time and decided to take a walk.

"Do you have any ideas about what we could do?"

I stopped, turned around, looked at Brom and told him no. I then turned back around and kept walking. By the time I got into the woods, Eragon was heading back to the camp.

I walked into the woods, just thinking to myself.

_It doesn't even seem like I am needed in this quest of theirs. Why do I stay with them? Isn't there something that I could do instead of slow them down? I could be helping other people. People who need it more than Eragon and Brom. If I left though, where would I go? I could go home and see what happened to my family after I left. I could try to find the elves. They could help to train me. I could leave the empire, try to start new. There are many things that I could do. _

By the time I had gotten all this off of my chest, I was a good ways from the camp. I sat down on a rock and thought more. Red-Eye showed up before too long. He sat down next to me and watched me. When he sat next to me, a new thought popped in my mind. I was extremely homesick.

_**You have something on your mind.**_

_Yes, though it is not something that I wish to discuss at the present moment._

_**Many times, it is better to tell someone of your thoughts and get them out in the open than to hold them inside. If you hold them inside for too long, they might become too much for you. I do not want to see you in that condition.**_

_I know, but it is hard to talk about. _

_**The longer you wait, the harder it will become to talk about. **_

By this time, I was almost crying. Red-Eye came up to me and curled around me. He wrapped his body around me, comforting me with his thoughts and with his company. After a few moments, I settled down enough to start talking again.

_I'm homesick. I haven't been home in … how long. I don't know how any of my family is doing. I don't know how any of my friends are doing. I don't know anything about what is going on there. I miss the fun times that I had there. I miss the relaxation that I always felt. I miss it. _

_**It is normal to miss something that you have grown up with when it is taken away from you. Do not focus on the past though. You have been given a chance that many would and probably have died for. You must now focus on the present and the future. That is the only way that you will survive in this new world.**_

_Thank you. I know that it is normal to be homesick, but it just hit me all of a sudden. You're right. It does feel better to get something off your chest rather than hold it inside. It feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. _

_**I do everything that I can to help.**_

_We should probably be heading back now. Eragon and Brom may have thought of something. Hopefully they have decided on something to do to continue this journey._

**So, what do you think? Please R&R. **


	14. Travel Plans

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of CP's characters. I only own mine.**

When we made it back to camp, Eragon was gone, as was Saphira. Brom was there and he told us what had happened. It seemed that the Ra'zac dropped some type of flask. The flask had some oil that was rare, but commonly traded. They figured out that they would go to one of the ports and look up the shipping records. They decided to go to Teirm, which controlled most of the trade. It would take us about a week to get to Teirm.

That evening, we sparred as usual, but with much less intensity. Eragon and I were both sore by the time we were done with our swords.

The next day, while we were traveling, Eragon asked Brom; "What is the sea like?"

"You must have heard it described before."

"Yes, but what is it really like?"

Brom was obviously lost in thought for a moment, then he said; "The sea is emotion incarnate. It loves, hates, and weeps. It defies all attempts to capture it with words and rejects all shackles. No matter what you say about it, there is always that which you can't. Do you remember what I told you about the elves coming over the sea?"

"Yes."

"Though they live far from the coast, they retain a great fascination and passion for the ocean. The crashing waves, the smell of salt air, it affects them deeply and has inspired many of their loveliest songs. There is one that tells of this love, if you want to hear it."

"I would."

"I will translate it from the ancient language as best as I can. It won't be perfect, but perhaps it will give you an idea of how the original sounds."

For a moment, Brom was silent in thought. After a few moments, he began:

_O liquid temptress 'neath the azure sky,_

_Your gilded expanse calls me, calls me._

_For I would sail ever on,_

_Were it not for the elven maid,_

_Who calls me, calls me._

_She binds my heart with a lily-white tie,_

_Never to be broken, save by the sea,_

_Ever to be torn twixt the trees and the waves._

"There is much more to that song, the 'Du Silbena Datia.' I have only recited one of its verses. It tells the sad tale of two lovers, Acallamh and Nuada, who were separated by longing for the sea. The elves find great meaning in the story."

Eragon simply stated; "It's beautiful."

When we stopped, we could see the Spine on the horizon. Eragon and I sparred, as was usual, but this time the outcome was different.

Eragon and I started out in our usual stances. Eragon was always in a more aggressive stance, while I was always in a defensive stance. He was the first to attack, swinging hard at my ribs. I dodged and attacked back, swing at his ribs, underneath his sword. Immediately after hitting him, I attacked again, this time aiming at his sword arm. He blocked the attack, but allowed me to continue. I slid under his sword and got behind him, hitting him in the back as I went. He fell forwards. I attacked again, again hitting him in the back. I allowed him to get back up, keeping ready for anything that he might do. He swung as he stood, making me jump to dodge his attack. As I landed, he attacked again, aiming for my ribs. I blocked him and used my momentum to elbow him in the chest, knocking him back and knocking the wind out of him. I attacked again, knocking the sword out of his hand and bringing my sword up to his throat.

"Very good. You have broken past your fears. Eragon, you also did well."

_**You did well. Brom is right. You have broken past your fear of Eragon and are now able to show your true skill with the sword. You must continue with this. It will allow you to overcome many obstacles. **_

_Thank you. I will remember that. I didn't realize that I could do that well against Eragon. He controlled all the other matches that we had. _

_**He controlled them because of your fear of him. Now that you show no fear of his attacks, he could no longer control you. **_

Eragon began to duel with Brom as Red-Eye and I talked. After their match, Brom and I sparred.

We started out in our usual stances. I attacked first, swinging at Brom's ribs. He easily blocked and countered. He took control of the match from there, showing his skill with the sword.

After Brom and I sparred, we went to bed for the night.

The next three days were filled with traveling and learning. Eragon and I learned more about the elven language, how to hunt with magic, and how to care for our dragons. We practiced magic and sparred, sometimes with fists instead of swords.

Eventually, I noticed a change in my body. I was now lean, almost completely muscle, and much stronger than what I was before this trip. _I am changing without realizing it._

_**If you now know that you are changing, then you are not changing without realizing it.**_

_I guess you're right._

_**A dragon is always right.**_

We later reached the pass in the Spine that we were looking for. There was a river flowing out of the gap.

"This is the Toark," explained Brom. "We'll follow it all the way to the sea."

Eragon was unconvinced, laughing as he asked; "How can we if it flows out of the Spine in this direction? It won't end up in the ocean unless it doubles back on itself."

Explaining, Brom told us; "because in the middle of the mountains rests the Woadark Lake. A river flows from each end of it and both are called the Toark. We see the eastward one now. It runs to the south and winds through the brush until it joins Leona Lake. The other one goes to the sea."

We followed the Toark, reaching the Woadark within a day. The next day, we traversed the other side of the Toark, reaching the edge of the Spine and looking out on the leagues that we had yet to traverse by the end of the day. Half the next day was spent descending the foothills. The rest was spent traveling towards Teirm through the moss and heather that was prominent. We were soaked through by the end of the first day of traveling this area. It took us two days to get from the Spine to Teirm.

Brom decided that we would use fake names while we were in Teirm. Brom was Neal. Eragon was Evan. I was Enos. Upon reaching viewing distance of Teirm, we told the dragons that they should hide. Red-Eye was not the happiest that he would again have to hide, but he did it anyways. Saphira was not happy either and took longer to leave than Red-Eye. We then headed the rest of the distance towards Teirm.

**Man, I don't get to put about my favorite quote from the book in here. It is between Eragon and Saphira right at this time. I will put it in here though.**

_**You should land somewhere now and hide. We're going in.**_

_**Sticking your nose where it doesn't belong. Again, **_**She said sourly**_**.**_

_**I know. But Brom and I do have some advantages most people don't. We'll be alright.**_

_**If anything happens, I'm going to pin you to my back and never let you off.**_

_**I love you too.**_

_**Then I will bind you all the tighter.**_

**That is probably my favorite quote from the book. One of them at least.**

**If you have a favorite Quote from the book, why don't you tell me about it in your review? Please R&R.**


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